How to enable “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” option in the open-with-dialog box [closed]

Question

How can I enable “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” option in the Open With dialog box?

I already checked the following registry entries:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer
Value of "NoFileAssociate" Set to 0 ( as reccomended on Microsoft site )

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Unknown\shell\openas\command
Value of "Default" set to
%SystemRoot%\system32\rundll32.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1

What else could cause the “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” option to be disabled?

Answer 1

I have recently discovered how to fix a similar problem on my PC.

1. Open Regedit.exe

2. Navigate to the following subkey

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts

3. Scroll down and find the file extension you are having problems with (for me it was .sln).

4. Expand it to view its sub keys.

5. Find a sub key called "UserChoice" and delete it.

Repeat steps 3 to 5 for each file extension causing you problems.

For me the "UserChoice" contained a key called "Progid" and its value was "Applications\vbexpress.exe". This was causing all of my .sln files to open with vbexpress.exe and Windows would not let me choose an alternative program (I wanted it to open with Visual Studio 2010).

Answer 2

If the file you're opening has no extension, then this option will never be available.

Otherwise, try to flesh out your question with more detail on what type of files you're dealing with.